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Abby Rapoport: Looking for Mr. or Ms. Right—at the Last Minute

Iowa isn’t known for being on the left, but Grinnell College, where I go, is one of the schools that puts the liberal in liberal arts. Students here may not be the political norm, but we are politically aware. Yet even after months of seeing the candidates and reading their press releases, we’re still waiting for that magical candidate who will create a sense of the inspirational. For many of us, there remains a widespread feeling that we must settle.

After seeing every candidate, one friend decided she didn’t want to caucus. “Someone on the Democratic side will get picked,” she said. “Whoever it is, I’ll like them better than the Republican pick, but they still won’t be what I want.”

In Iowa, where we see everyone up close, it’s easy to notice the candidates’ imperfections, both in policy and personality. I like Edwards’s health care plan but his immigration policy is too conservative for my taste. Clinton certainly has foreign policy credentials, but her stance on issues like gay marriage makes me cringe. Even Obama, a seeming savior of the left, is pretty centrist economically and socially compared with my friends, who want tougher climate regulations and to have gay marriage legalized.

I miss Paul Wellstone, the late progressive Minnesota senator, and my own first political hero, who was often criticized for being extreme.

In a sense it’s a catch-22. We want a break from partisan politics, but we also want candidates who will take radical positions on issues like immigration and civil liberties. Most of my friends are caucusing, but few are excited about their candidates of choice.

I’ve waited until today to decide who I’ll caucus for—I’m still not 100 percent sure. I’ve held out in the hope that I will suddenly get a jolt of enthusiasm for one candidate. That jolt may not happen. But who knows? Maybe I’ll find my political hero just in time.